Maxim Institute - real issues - No. 85

* A New Deal The Education Forum has launched
an alternative model for schooling in New Zealand. *
The Ministry of Education Do we now have statist rather
than state education? * Our new court - where to now?
Appeals to the Privy Council are gone but this is just the
start. * Prostitution control Act now to stop brothels
setting up in your neighbourhood.

The New Deal

A plan to reform New Zealand's education system
released this week by the Education Forum raises important
questions about the effectiveness of our one-size-fits-all
school model. It advocates that parents have greater
freedom to choose an education that best suit their
children's needs and will provoke debate on the present
system. The Education Forum is an association of educators
drawn from primary, secondary and tertiary sectors,
together with leaders of industry and commerce, who have a
common concern for the direction of education in New
Zealand. A New Deal - Making Education Work for all New
Zealanders, draws on extensive research from overseas, and
presents alternative models for compulsory schooling which
have been successful elsewhere. It argues that parents
should be able to make real choices for their children;
seeks the abolition of school zoning (what it calls "the
Berlin Wall of education"), and recommends a funding
mechanism which follows pupils irrespective of which school
they attend.

The proposal also wants more freedom for
individual schools, suggesting they be funded in cash and
left to determine how best to spend it. Teachers should be
given a more generous and flexible pay scheme, allowing
good practitioners to be rewarded. Transparency of
information with easy access for parents is proposed along
with broader routes to teacher registration. A New Deal
provides a platform for serious consideration of education
reform.

For more details, visit the Forum's website:
www.educationforum.org.nz

The Ministry of Education

In a complete reversal of the 1989 shift towards
greater local autonomy, Secretary for Education, Howard
Fancy, said in the Statement of Intent (2003-2008): "No
longer are we the hands-off Ministry that followed
Tomorrow's Schools. We are working to become more skilled
about how, when and where we intervene."

In 2002, the
Ministry employed 3,000 permanent, temporary and field
staff. That figure has swelled considerably this year with
the absorption of Early Childhood Development. In addition,
the Tertiary Education Commission (under the Ministry's
auspices) has taken on 360 new employees to preside over
the charters and profiles of our eight universities and
other tertiary providers. It is deeply ironic that while
the Ministry is in growth mode, schools all over the
country are being forced to close. The Ministry is showing
total disregard to parental and community wishes as it
dictates the direction of education.

The axe is to swing
on 300 schools nationwide, but the government's focus is
not on what schools are actually doing. There might be some
logic if the schools concerned were poorly run or had
shrinking rolls. But many are performing well, to the
satisfaction of their communities and even the Education
Review Office. The control we're now seeing, as commentator
Chris Trotter has described, is statist rather than state
education - an agenda is being advanced irrespective of
reality.

Our new court - where to now?

Now
that appeals to the Privy Council in London have been
severed, the focus is on the future. In her speech on
Tuesday Attorney General, Margaret Wilson said, "we must
throw off, once and for all, the fetters of our colonial
past." This suggests more is to come and that ditching the
Privy Council was only part of a much bigger strategy for
reform.

The move away from Westminster may be seen as a
sort of legal 'coming of age', but casting off the past is
one thing; what replaces it is another. Ms Wilson is
confident new equals better, but time will tell. If we move
down the republic path, who will write our constitution and,
more importantly, on what foundation will that constitution
rest? The position taken by this government is essentially
a revisionist one premised on the idea that received
traditions are implicitly 'colonial', 'oppressive' and
'anti-progress'. Cast in that mould, so-called 'reform' is
not only desirable, but imperative. For the
Labour-Progressive coalition, creating a society in its own
image is more important than conserving the good. Nothing
has any permanent value and the latest is always superior.
This situation has rightly been called 'chronological
snobbery'.

Prostitution bylaws

Local bodies
have begun to consult the public concerning prostitution
bylaws. It is their responsibility under the Prostitution
Reform Act to regulate where brothels are located and signs
advertising prostitution can be placed. The Auckland and
Christchurch City Councils are among the first to canvass
their constituents. Councils can also pass bylaws to
promote public health and prevent activities like pimping
and soliciting causing a public nuisance or serious
offence.

Resistance has already been shown by the New
Zealand Prostitutes' Collective and the bill's original
promoter, Christchurch Central MP, Tim Barnett, to some of
the proposed constraints on the location of brothels. Many
councils are waiting to see what happens or are relying on
current district plans to control the effects. To prevent
brothels being able to set up in your neighbourhood you
need to make a submission.

We encourage readers to find
out what your local council is proposing and to have a say.
For more information visit:
www.maxim.org.nz/prb/bylaw.html

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK
- Geoffrey Rippon (1924-)

Governments don't retreat,
they simply advance in another direction.

(The Observer, 1981)

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